The Author In Australia: The Lingo (Language)

Australia is the world’s smallest continent but what it lacks in numbers it makes up in personality. Being down under and completely away from the grinds of the world, Aussie’s (Australians) have their own unique way of life and speaking. Even people from English-speaking countries sometimes say they find it hard to understand what Australians are talking about.

Time is the only thing that will help you adjust to the Australian accent. But this guide will help you understand some of the more common slang words you may hear in Australia.

How you going?
This is a very common phrase used when two people greet each other. The catch here is it doesn’t mean ‘How you going?’ in the literal sense but ‘How are you doing?’. Think of this as short for ‘How is your day going?’

Mate
Men greet each other as mate (friend). It is very common to hear people saying ‘Thanks, Mate’ or ‘How you going Mate?’

Love, Darling
Women on the other day greet each other as Darling, Love or sweetheart.

Diary
If you are in the IT world and have used Microsoft Office Outlook to set up meetings and appointments you are used to the term Calendar. But in Australia even though they mean the same Calendar they refer to it as Diary. So when setting up a time to meet they will often say, ‘Let’s put it down in the diary’

Dah-ta and not Day-ta
Since Australia uses the Queen’s English even in the way they speak they pronounce words differently from how an Indian would. If you walk into a mobile store, for example, don’t be surprised to hear how they pronounce data when speaking about the Internet Plan. They will say dah-ta and not day-ta. However, they do understand what day-ta mean. Hence it is not a hindrance.

Toh-mah-to and not Toh-may-to
The same rule as in the previous case applies here too.

Yogurt
There is no such thing as curd here. Be it flavoured or unflavoured, it is yogurt.